Preliminary Evidence for Changes in Functional Connectivity Associated with Emotional Awareness after Mobile-Based Mindfulness Meditation

After eight weeks of daily mindfulness meditation practiced through a mobile application (about 24 minutes per day), 21 adults reported increased mindfulness and decreased difficulties with emotion regulation. Functional MRI scans showed no significant task-based brain changes, but resting-state scans revealed increased connectivity between the right posterior insula and the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and decreased connectivity between default mode network regions and occipital areas. The decrease in connectivity between the VMPFC and the cuneus correlated with improved emotional awareness. These findings suggest mobile-based mindfulness may alter functional brain networks related to emotion regulation, warranting further research.

Study at a glance

Abstract

PURPOSE: Recently, mental health interventions through mobile applications have been increasing. This study sought to explore what changes occurred in psychometric properties and brain functional connectivity (FC) among people who practiced mindfulness meditation through a mobile application. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects underwent mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) for about 24 minutes every day for 8 weeks through a mobile application. Before and after MBI, a total of 21 adult men and women completed self-report questionnaires and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tests. The fMRI data were acquired during an attention network test and during the resting state. RESULTS: In self-report questionnaires, participants reported increased levels of mindfulness and decreased emotion regulation difficulties after MBI. In task-based fMRI, the time-by-intervention effect was not significant. In resting-state fMRI, FC between the right posterior insula and the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) increased after MBI. FC between the default mode network-related regions and the occipital regions decreased after MBI. The decrease in FC between the VMPFC and the cuneus showed a significant correlation with the improvement in emotional awareness after MBI. CONCLUSION: In a pre- and post-MBI comparison of a single group, subjects who underwent mobile-based MBI showed FC changes including the VMPFC. In particular, some of these FC changes were correlated with changes in emotional awareness. The results of this study suggest that further research is needed to verify whether mobile-based MBI affects improvement in emotion regulation through neural changes in functional brain networks.